Identify 17-foot Boat with Boston Whaler Characteristics

[West Africa Whaler]

I have stumbled on at the local boat that I think is a Boston Whaler 17-foot hull, albeit one that has had a hard life. The lines are clearly Boston Whaler but the top bow section is different than any 17-foot hull I can find photos for online. There has been some bad fiberglass work but the bow looks original. There are no hull numbers or factory plate.

Q1: can the manufacturer and year of production be identified from the photographs below of a boat located in west Africa?

Fig. 1. A boat to be identified by manufacturer and year of production from this photograph.

IMG_3277.jpeg (128.09 KiB) Viewed 550 times

Fig. 2. A boat to be identified by manufacturer and year of production from this photograph.

IMG_3276.jpeg (90.46 KiB) Viewed 550 times

Fig. 3. A boat to be identified by manufacturer and year of production from this photograph.

IMG_3275.jpeg (120.14 KiB) Viewed 550 times

ASIDE: I live in west Africa and imported a nice classic 1987 14-foot Boston' Whaler boat with a Yamaha 30-HP engine. I love the boat, and I built a console from local hard woods so I could drive standing.

[jimh]

I agree with your observation about the foredeck of the boat shown in Figures 1, 2, and 3 being quite different from what would be seen in a 17-foot boat build by Boston Whaler.

My best inference based on the three photographs is the boat was copied from a Boston Whaler 17-foot hull. Perhaps a mold was made from the hull to allow this boat to be laid up in fiberglass. Exactly where the interior liner came from is unknown.

I would expect that pulling a female mold from a hull is not particularly hard to do because of the general shape of the hull. Pulling a mold off the cockpit seems like it would be more difficult due to the many different shapes necessary, much sharper curves, and changes of direction. So perhaps the bow section was created by whomever built the boat. Making it quite different than a Boston Whaler was probably intentional.

At least two companies came out with boats very similar to the Boston Whaler. A company in England called DELL QUAY made a 13-foot hull that was very similar to the Boston Whaler 13-footer. Perhaps they made a 17-footer, too. For the boat to get to Africa from England is a shorter passage than to come from the United States.

I recommend you search for images of DELL QUAY boats. Perhaps you may find an answer to your question.

You can see a 13-foot DELL QUAY boat in the CETACEA collection. Note that the foredeck is quite different than the Boston Whaler boat. See

https://continuouswave.com/whaler/cetac ... age72.html

As for being able to identify the year of production the boat seen in the photographs, I cannot offer any guess.